Sports medicine is an exciting field of medicine, helping
athletes recover from injuries that previously ended careers. As research
and knowledge expands in this area, doctors will be capable in doing even
more to prevent injuries as well as helping them to heal. In special interest
to doctors is junior tennis, which has the highest injury rate for any sport
for children 18 and under. Junior tennis is growing in popularity and the
competition is increasing, but, with such a high injury rate, parents might
begin choosing another sport for their child. Research has to be done to
cut the injury rate and keep tennis' popularity. In my experiment, I tried
to find the factors that contribute to the injuries and research how much
the players are doing to prevent hurting themselves. From my results, I
learned that the most injury-causing factor is excessive hours of practice.
Although racquet and shoe types contribute slightly, they do not cause as
much permanent harm to the body as too much play-time. With doctors understanding
the roles that these factors play in causing injuries, they can do more
to change the equipment and recommend less hours of practice to a patient
with an injury.